August 30, 2007

Management by Chaos is a recognized management technique, along with Management by Delegation and Management by Exception. I've seen it in practice. The manager who creates the chaos, or allows it, has the advantage of knowing the chaos is intentional. He also has a strategy to exploit the chaos.

I've raised the question of whether or not the Chaos in Iraq is on purpose. I'm not alone in asking this question.

Now, an article in the Baltimore City Paper poses the question again [1]. It seems that people cannot believe the Bush gang is so incompetent. An Iraqi, Haider Thamir, living in the US recalls how the United States used German bureaucrats to run Germany during the occupation after World War II and wonders why the US didn't do that in Iraq.

Thamir says the United States ignored history... But was, is, the United States merely incompetent? Or are American forces deliberately fostering conflict and violence? Mohammad Al-Khakani, alludes to stories he has heard from friends in Iraq about American troops blocking police action by Iraqi forces, essentially shielding terrorist activity. Prime Minister al-Maliki, he says, has "complained to Bush that he can't move without US permission."

Al-Khakani was a translator in Iraq, on the promise he'd be assisted in leaving Iraq.

Thamir says he has heard similarly chilling reports, "that when there's a raid on terrorists, that Americans would release them." Thamir continues, "The rationale is that chaos would reign supreme and there'd be an excuse for the occupation to be sustained."

Then there are the experiences of Jodie Evans, a peace activist who was in Iraq before and after the 2003 US invasion [2].

"Immediately after we arrived," said Evans, "we hear that it is not only worse than before the war. It is worse than during the war. People are upset, people are angry. There were lots of stories about how the Americans are doing this on purpose. A month after the '91 war, which was much worse than this one, everything was back and working. Now, the people live in this chaos they can't even imagine. People can't go outside. Women haven't left their homes. Lots of people haven't come back from Syria or Kuwait or wherever they fled to get away from the bombing, because life in Iraq is unlivable. There is 65% unemployment, and even the doctors and nurses and teachers who are going to work don't get paid, so there's no money."

Evans met a number of Americans in Iraq who are part of the 'rebuilding process.' The overall organization is called the Iraqi Assistance Center, or IAC. The man Evans met was a professor of religion and political theory at a religious college in America. He explained that his job was to collect intelligence for Bremer.

"That professor I spoke to, the one doing intelligence for Bremer, I told him that I had spoken to countless Iraqis and all of them felt this chaos was happening on purpose," said Evans. "He basically said this was true, that chaos was good, and out of chaos comes order. So what the Iraqis were saying - that this madness was all on purpose - this intelligence guy didn't discredit it. He said, 'If you keep them hungry, they'll do anything for us.'"

Regardless of whether Bush's people helped create the chaos in Iraq on purpose, it is playing to their advantage. We hear them say, "We need to stay and provide security because there's so much chaos." "We have an obligation to stay and help quell the chaos." "We can't leave because there would be even more chaos."

The Chaos also provides cover for activities that couldn't happen in as stable society.

"..the first thing America did was to fire 80,000 police officers. These guys weren't associated with the Hussein regime. That's like connecting a cop in LA to the Bush administration. All the people I've talked to over there, the ambassadors and others, said they warned Bremer not to do that. The cops knew who the criminals were, and 80,000 cops are gone. So now there are these little mafias that run neighborhoods. With no other work and no way to survive, people are going to become criminals. The borders are wide open - we didn't even get stopped when we came in - so everything is just flowing into Iraq."

On accident or on purpose?

Another example of being able to take advantage of the chaos is the Iraqi Oil Law. The passing of this law, one of the US Congress's benchmarks for "success" in Iraq. It is being portrayed as a revenue sharing agreement among Kurdish, Sunni and Shia regions; however, it's a Trojan horse. Inside the horse are foreign oil corporations who will have a majority vote on the Iraqi oil board and have 30-year leases to exploit Iraqi oil. And Bremer passed an edict that allows foreign corporations to take 100% their profits from Iraq, probably tax free.

The chaos started with the death squads, the Salvador Option. Now, the Iraq conflict has evolved. Al-Khakani says it well, alluding to the situation of the US:

"You see, on September 11, when the building is on fire, the person inside has a choice. He can jump from the top. If he stays, he's going to burn."

Then he nails it:

Al-Khakani says he fears that if the United States pulls out, it will arm the Sunnis and Wahhabis (al-Qaeda), the radical Sunni sect that dominates Saudi Arabia, to fight Shiites and Iran.

There is already evidence of this. First, in Iraq, the US is clearly working with the Sunnis. It's all over the establishment news. Second, in Lebanon, Seymour Hersh reports that the US is involved in Saudi funding of fundamentalist Sunnis (like al-Qaeda) to counter Shia Hezbollah. This backfired quickly when Fatah al-Islam took over, and hid, in a Palestinian refugee when the Lebanon Army decided they had robbed one too many banks or something.

"... in the business of supporting the Sunnis anywhere we can against the Shia. "... in the business of creating ... sectarian violence."

Why? The US doesn't really like Sunni's (Unless they're Saudi Royalty that don't fund al-Qaeda), and they don't like Shia... Iran is primarily Shia. So, what better strategy than to manage by chaos? Get the Shia and Sunni to fight with each other.